Wow oh wow

Melody is my personal hero. Pam is my Muse, but Melody is my Hero. I may never sew a binding by hand (and take FOREVER to do it) again. The Escape Hatch finish (which must be capitalized, due to it's near-divine status in my heart) is... well, WOW.

I used it on MBD #1 yesterday night, AND did all of the stitch in the ditch work with monofilament on top, cotton behind, and did it ALL in about 90 minutes. (Insert angelic choir "aahhhh" here -> :) :) :)

Now it is ready for decorative machine and handstitching, which I am actually looking forward to, now that I know that hand binding the sucker isn't the following step!

Only problem? The back is a complete DISASTER. Look up Pucker in the dictionary and get a picture of the back of MBD #1! Now I understand why someone said that I should make the back piece just a tad smaller than the top; in order to 'roll' the front fabric to the back so the backing doesn't show on the front, the end result is WAY flappy fabric on the back, and that is BOUND and DETERMINED to become a prototype for a country fair kissing booth - one big pucker after another!

Ah well. Karoda isn't a big fan of the borders on it (neither am I), but I assured her that this is only #1. I am going to leave the borders off of #2 - I promise! I was playing with balancing the luminosity of the pink and purple sort of after-the-fact with those borders and they *don't* really work, but I am trying to give myself permission to screw these up and see where they take me anyway.

BTW - I discovered another really cool thing about my new Husky Star - it isn't constantly trying to trim my bangs! I used to get my forelock (sorry, I know sheep people!) caught in the uppy-downy bit on the top of my machine, and even though I haven't had bangs cut since my last abortive attempt at short hair, you can't tell that from my hair on a humid day - frizz central, and all up front!

This reminds me of something I have been meaning to ask you all - how the heck do you get close enough to your machine to see what the heck you are doing? I keep hearing about folks who have their machines lowered down so they are flush with their tables. Heck with that - I've got mine RAISED on a DICTIONARY (you know - the one with a picture of MBD#1 under 'pucker') so that I can see the darned thing stitch, and even then, I spend most of my time with my head leaning against the top of my machine! My back obviously doesn't love this either, and it is seriously cramping my style as well! Should I get glasses with a different focal length, or what? Suggestions MOST gratefully welcomed!